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I was contemplating between 4 and 5 stars for this series but in the end I went with 5. It was at times truly unpleasant to read but that wasn't because it was bad in any way. It's just that I think the story caught me so good that I felt all the horrible things happening to the characters almost a bit too much. This series does contain very horrific events, like rape and violence, depicted with detail. And the art does not try to spare the reader at all. Despite that I kept on reading and I'm glad I did. It's a story about cruel things happening to people and about the vicious cycle of violence perpetuated by the victims. It's a story about the morbid desire to completely possess someone and destruction of innocence in the process. But it's also a story about redemption.

In the end I'm not even sure it is in any way correct to market this series as yaoi. It is so different from the average yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi (no climax, no resolution, no meaning). I have read a couple of yaoi mangas with much deeper than average plot, but nothing like this. This is not even a tragic love story with a dark twist like some of Watase's previous shoujo works are. I do like her shoujo works and usually try to read all the ones that I find but this is something totally different. I would not recommend this for an average yaoi fan, not even to fans of non-con since I'm of the opinion that this series was not made to appeal to that kind of audience.

I'm going to re-read this when some time has passed and maybe drop the rating to 4 stars if I feel that the violence is more excessive than what is needed since that is right now my only doubt. But 5 for now.

Read information about the author

A Japanse shoujo manga-ka. She is known for her works Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, Ceres: The Celestial Legend, Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend. She likes all music, except heavy metal and old traditional music.

She received the Shogakukan Manga Award for shōjo for Ceres, Celestial Legend in 1997. Since writing her debut short story "Pajama de Ojama" ("An Intrusion in Pajamas"), Watase has created more than 80 compiled volumes of short stories and continuing series. Because of her frequent use of beautiful male characters in her works, she is widely regarded in circles[which?] as a bishōnen manga artist.[citation needed] In October 2008, Watase began her first shōnen serialization, Arata: The Legend in Weekly Shōnen Sunday.Her name is romanized as "Yû Watase" in earlier printings of Viz Media's publications of Fushigi Yūgi, Alice 19th, and Ceres, The Celestial Legend, while in Viz Media's Fushigi Yūgi Genbu Kaiden and Absolute Boyfriend her name is romanized as "Yuu Watase". In Chuang Yi's English-language versions of Fushigi Yugi (spelled without a macron or circumflex), her name is romanized as "Yu Watase".